THE HERON 
grew less and his joints stiffer.) The following 
autumn brought to Ballongarry an English 
gamekeeper, who claimed rights as despotic as 
those which Andy Hogan exercised, and long 
and bitter was the conflict between them. 
Also, much timber was cut down ; and 
though, truth to tell, the woods sorely needed 
thinning out, the people followed Andy Hogan, 
and denounced the deed. Andy was as super- 
stitious as an Indian ; and as the width of 
the baldric woven by the White Lady of 
Avenal testified to the prosperity of the family 
whose fortunes she watched over, so to Andy 
the heronry and the luck of the house of 
Geoghegan were mysteriously linked together. 
Therefore when only one pair of herons came 
to the old trees in the glen one still morning 
in January, he believed that the rest of the 
birds of last season's hatching boycotted the 
place solely on account of their dislike to the 
new heir. 
One morning he chuckled with delight when 
he picked up a piece of blue eggshell under 
the tree. 
" Shure there's more o' thim up there," he 
muttered, and tapped the trunk to see the old 
bird flap majestically off the nest. 
Only the sunbeams saw the chicks wax from 
blind nakedness, which demanded nothing but 
o 209 
